


Rest Easy

by drbubblegum



Category: Karneval
Genre: M/M, doooorrrrrrkkkkkkssssss, grab some insulin y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2013-11-14
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drbubblegum/pseuds/drbubblegum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a hum of something beautiful in the air, and Nai knows better than to disturb it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rest Easy

He doesn’t sleep much, Gareki. Nai knows this because he hears him rolling around on the bunk above him every night, just like he hears the bad thoughts surrounding him in the dark. Nai wishes there was something he could do to help his friend because he’s learned that’s what people do for those who make them feel warm inside—for those they care about, he corrects himself.

So one day, when he’s helping the sheep tidy the lounge, Nai’s surprised to find Gareki sprawled across the couch, one knee tucked awkwardly in the corner with his foot straight up in the air, and the other foot trailing off the edge of the cushions. He’s all twisted, and even Nai can’t imagine that as anywhere close to comfortable. Then again, Gareki always did look funny when he slept.

What’s more surprising, though, is that Gareki has claimed Yogi’s lap for his pillow, squeezing an arm under Yogi’s leg and the other dangling limply in midair. Yogi doesn’t seem to notice anything odd with this situation. He’s humming quietly, looking over some papers propped on the other arm of the couch, a pink pen tucked behind his ear.

"Yogi?" Nai asks.

He glances up and smiles. Nai thinks Yogi has some of the best smiles. They remind him of meadows and sunshine and the sweetest, softest sounds from home.

"Shh," Yogi whispers, putting a finger in front of his mouth. "I just got Gareki-kun to sleep!"

It’s funny, watching Yogi mouth the words, barely making a sound. Funny because Gareki makes a noise and his eyebrows pinch together as he presses his face against Yogi’s thigh. Funny because of the way Yogi almost jumps out of his skin, face suddenly as red as the tomato soup at lunch yesterday as he stares at Gareki like he’s waiting for him to bite.

Nai doesn’t think Gareki would bite anyone. But he isn’t sure. Gareki does a lot of things that don’t really make sense to him.

He doesn’t bite Yogi; he just settles back down, and resumes drooling. Nai exhales with Yogi, just as relieved. Yogi brushes his fingers through Gareki’s hair, careful not to wake him or move the strap of his goggles, and there’s something warm wrapped around both of them in that moment. 

When Nai opens his ears, he doesn’t hear anything dark or anything cold or anything like that woman with all the elbows from when he first met Gareki. He just hears quiet, even breathing, and a soft tune hummed to the same beat. That lilting little song makes Nai happy because it’s threaded with the most precious bits of thought he’s ever heard—it’s more beautiful than the flowers and bees dancing and it’s filled with—Nai doesn’t know the word for it, but it makes his fingers tingle and his cheeks hurt he’s smiling so wide. 

And when Yogi remembers him, smiles at him again, Nai keeps smiling brightly before he heads out the door to help the sheep in another room.

The buzz in his hands lingers, and Nai decides it’s a good thing because it means something tender and caring. Maybe this is what that story book had meant when it talked about love. Something quiet and warm and so incredibly strong. That’s sort of how Tsukumo had explained it.

He brushes the sheep and helps clean out a maintenance duct, and it’s almost dinner when Nai comes back to the lounge. He doesn’t see Yogi’s head above the top of the couch. Maybe he left. Maybe Gareki woke up. But if he listens, he can still hear that careful-quiet-strong humming ever so lightly in the air.

Nai goes around it, just to check. He finds Yogi slumped over Gareki, somehow squeezing himself into the space between Gareki’s back and the back of the couch. His arm is slung over Gareki and the edge of the couch, fingertips brushing the inside of Gareki’s wrist. And he’s smiling. At least, Nai thinks he is. It’s hard to tell with the way his face is pressed into Gareki’s side.

Rocking on his toes, Nai wonders if he should wake them up. After all, dinner would be soon, and he wants to eat with everyone, with his family. He opens his mouth.

Except maybe, maybe these two deserve a little rest. Nai hasn’t seen Gareki sleep this long in the entire time he’s known him. And he’s never seen Yogi look so blissfully content.

Nai listens for the hum, for the song that might be what love sounds like, and he hears it twisting in their breath. Before he’d thought it had just been Yogi. Yogi with the red face and the careful, careful fingers, but now he can hear a lower, slower harmony, curling stealthily under the tenor he’d heard first. It doesn’t give him that immediate burst of joy, but what he feels is something warm and steady and just a little understated, growing brighter with each passing moment.

He finds himself smiling again. Nai pulls back the hand that had been about to poke Yogi in the shoulder. No, he’ll leave them. Dinner would be waiting for them when they woke up. For right now, they are curled together in a way that shouldn’t look so cozy, swathed in a warmth Nai hasn’t quite heard before.

And Nai thinks it’s good.

**Author's Note:**

> [On Tumblr.](http://drbubblegum.tumblr.com/post/66948341180)


End file.
